Winona

The story is known. From sunrise to sunset of a late summer day, four young women kill their time in a deserted beach. They are saying corny (let God make them) jokes, sing discordant songs, recite reams of non-sense together, talk a lot about Woody Allen, managing to say absolutely nothing (which is a feat by itself). They tear up and laugh by themselves, they put up sunscreen, dive into the sea from time to time and create pointless fictions about the only house overlooking the beach. I believe i am getting understood.

But wait a minute! There is suspense also. A car is there and they are probably being watched, but may be not. Probably there is something else going on also, and if this can't be deciphered from the movie, then there are those courteous cinema "critics" who point it out in their "critiques", so that the viewers will expect it and not leave in the middle of the movie. Of course, at the end of the film, even this "something else" is unclear whether it is happening or not. The emotions that the director probably aimed to are lost and sunk in the general boredom that he has successfully generated thus far. The viewer can't take seriously this new discovery, when the director is not taking it seriously himself. There are some Latin American movies that use the technique of the last minute revelation very skillfully and the director should probably want to go and look them over.

However, this movie has a real achievement at its disposal: 14 hours of cinema time are condensed into 2 hours of real time, but the viewer is sure that it is rather 24 hours that have passed by. Since it seems that the director/script writer likes cinema jokes, he should have called his movie "The Big Sleep" instead of "Winona".

This is a typical example of bad Greek cinema that is promoted by certain critics. It reminded me of "Blackout" (1998), that had also been promoted at its time by certain critics. However, "Blackout" had been, even unintentionally, amusing in its pompousness. "Winona" is unable to even offer this shallow compensation for the the two hours waste.

Fought to stay awake through it.

Seemed like mediocre writers generated large volumes of inane, vapid dialogue hoping that some it would be good enough for the final script and all of it got used, even though almost none of it was any good.

I rarely rate films this highly, but Winona got under my skin in a way few others ever have. Four outstanding actors play young women who have come together on an isolated beach for an unspecified reason. They swim, talk, play, read. Mostly they spin tales of a house overlooking the bay, of a car that seems to be observing them, and they imagine themselves the subjects of a film.

Over the course of the meandering first hour we become aware there is more that links these women than short-sightedness and a love of Woody Allen films. They are unnaturally close, intimate but not in a sexual way. Twice, maybe three times over the course of the day, heartbreak spills out into their lives. We feel there is something unsaid. Some might guess the ending - the clues are all there - but I didn't try, and it devastated me. I am not emotional as a rule, but I was so involved with this group, so comfortable with them, that the final scenes had me in tears. Even then, though, this quartet made me laugh with an insider joke about copyright (funny even if you have never encountered Greek bootleg CDs / DVDs).

Good cinema takes us out of ourselves and places us in a different world. Winona made me one of this group, and I am glad of the day I spent with them.

Pretentious lines, soulless recital of dialogue (which may perhaps work in Giorgos Lanthimos' films but in this case it just feels cheap), pop-culture references and name-dropping just for the sake of it. Just because the colours look pretty it doesn't necessarily mean that this films conveys the atmosphere and spirit of a lazy summer day. Just because something is shot on 16mm film, it doesn't equal great filmmaking. Definitely not worth sitting through this so you can get a semblance of plot for the last 15 or so minutes.

Well if you want to call it that. Maybe I should have gone with "the sisters with the traveling beach" - but then again I don't think the movie needs a pun or a (misguided) reference to the travelling pants sage - which I am probably the least qualified person to make anyway.

Long introduction and not actually saying much - well that is sort of a great description of what you can expect from this movie. A movie that was apparently shot on 16mm (something that is either very important to you or you are just going to find the "video quality" to be of a lesser quality) ... and a movie that some might want to compare to earlier works of Lanthimos. If you are one of those, I hope you don't have fallen over yourself in praise of the other director and categorizing this as a bad movie.

Whatever you may think of the slow plot and really snail pace this has, the dialogs that seem to lead nowhere and without aim ... it is a day at the beach. Not any day and we can feel there is something dark and sinister those girls try to repress ... not sure if will be entirely clear in the end for most ... and no it has nothing to do with tourism, although I acknowledge and applaud that small commentary the movie makes.

Other than what I already have mentioned, the four women are really good. Something I for once did not feel with the earlier work of Lanthimos - it seemed he was happy with non actors. This on the other hand has some strong contenders. So even if you are not into the movie itself, you can't deny how good the acting is. Even more so, considering it feels like there was no actual dialog script - or they made most of it up. Which may be true or not - have not checked, but it feels improvised for sure. Not trying to diss the director - he may have given them a safe space to create on their own. Of course some may feel that this can be a reason why this feels aimless sometimes.

Still looking forward to what the director and the cast is coming up in the future. They deserve to make more stuff and we deserve to get to see more of their stuff.